Urban Backstages
If cultural display is what happens onstage, what is the urban backstage, where production, experimentation, and rehearsal take place? How can backstage of the city be expanded in order to increase its capacity for the production of new cultural forms?
If we think of the public facing cultural sites, largely aimed at national and international tourists and visitors, such as monuments, museums, galleries and theatres, where culture is consumed and displayed as the ‘urban stage’, then its behind-the-scenes counterpart is the ‘urban backstage’, which includes both the hidden spaces where cultural production, experimentation and rehearsals take place and the underlying conditions that underpin these activities. The urban backstage is made up of invisible networks, relationships and labour that exist out of public view in our cities, producing ‘everyday cultures’ which are vital in fostering and cultivating a shared cultural identity and sense of belonging in our urban spaces. From this provocation the project Urban Backstages was born, a multi-year research programme spanning three cities: London, Glasgow, Marseille.
Pullens Yard, Elephant & Castle, London
In each of these cities, we spent about a month investigating sites of everyday cultural production. Our focus was, and is, personal, amplifying the voices, stories and experiences of artists, performers, makers, designers, craftspeople, fabricators, cafe owners and those running small business that support cultural production locally. Our aim was to develop a broader account of the diversity of practices that generate the cultural life of the city, beyond traditional artist studio and artisanship, so we included light industry, digital production, materials suppliers and practices that may seem outside the scope of conventional understanding of culture such as hospitality and hairdressing, but which underpin cultural exchange and production particularly within diasporic and working-class communities.
Throughout the project, in each city, we collected a large quantity of data in different forms, which we are making available to other researchers via a digital database: a repository of our findings, statistics, network diagrams, illustrations, maps, snippets of conversation, photographs and a film. The database documents architectural, economic, and organisational infrastructures across case studies in London, Marseille, and Glasgow, from artist and activist-operated studios to major regeneration projects. It acts as a toolkit for public bodies and arts organisations looking to understand the diversity of models for supporting culture in cities.
Maldonado Walk, Elephant & Castle, London
Core project is received funding from Ax:son Johnson Foundation / In Glasgow, Creative Scotland provided exhibition and public programme funding, and Agile City have been programming partners / In Buenos Aires, el Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires and British Council Argentina, Bienal Internacional de Arquitectura de Buenos Aires is programming partner.